1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the manufacture of candles. More particularly, the invention relates to the manufacturing of a wax impregnated candle wick. Most particularly, the invention relates to a clip disk assembly used in the manufacture of a wax impregnated candle wick for attaching an eyelet to the wick.
2. State of the Art
It is well known in the art of candle making to pass a wick material through a bath of molten candle wax to impregnate the wick with wax. In the mass production of candles, a continuous string of wick material (cotton, paper, or other material) is fed through a series of operations including bathing the wick in molten wax. The state of the art apparatus for bathing the wick material is usually a single idler pulley or grooved stud located below the surface of the molten wax bath. The wick material is guided by pulleys or grooved studs to the bath whereupon it is fed through the bath by travelling under the single idler pulley or grooved stud which is located beneath the surface of the molten wax. Upon exiting the bath, the wax impregnated wick is passed through one or more dies whereby excess wax is trimmed and the final diameter of the wick is determined. Finally, the semi-finished wick is fed to an eyelet crimping station. The wick is fed through the eyelet. The eyelet is crimped, and the wick is cur to size. The eyelet prevents the wick from passing through the bore of a candle which has been molded without the wick and then bored to accept the wick.
State of the art machines for crimping an eyelet to a candle wick include an indexed circular work station having a rotatable clip disk with a plurality of peripheral notches. The notches are dimensioned to hold the eyelets. As an eyelet is indexed to position, a wick is inserted and the eyelet is crimped by a pneumatically driven crimping tool. State of the art crimping machines use a clip disk having notches large enough to hold the largest eyelet. These disks do not work well with smaller eyelets. Smaller eyelets can fall out of the notch or move around in the notch during crimping which results in non-uniform crimping.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an improved clip disk assembly for securing an eyelet to a candle wick.
It is also an object of the invention to provide an improved clip disk assembly for securing an eyelet to a candle wick which avoids the disadvantages of the prior art.
It is another object of the invention to provide an improved clip disk assembly for securing an eyelet to a candle wick which holds different sized eyelets securely.
It is still another object of the invention to provide an improved clip disk assembly for securing an eyelet to a candle wick which is retro-fittable on an existing crimping machine.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide an improved clip disk assembly for securing an eyelet to a candle wick which has a long life with little wear.
It is still another object of the invention to provide an improved clip disk assembly for securing an eyelet to a candle wick which is suitable for an assembly line manufacturing process.
In accord with these objects which will be discussed in detail below, the clip disk assembly according to the invention includes an adapter hub which attaches to the motor of an existing crimping machine and a plurality of clip disks, each being removably attachable to the adapter hub. Each clip disk is provided with a different sized peripheral notches to accommodate a different sized eyelet. According to the presently preferred embodiment, the adapter hub has four threaded peripheral studs and the clip disks have four corresponding holes. Four wing nuts are used to removably attach the clip disks to the adapter hub. Preferably, one stud has a larger boss than the others and one hole in the clip disks is correspondingly larger. The assembly permits changing of clip disks in about one minute.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reference to the detailed description taken in conjunction with the provided figures.